Barrier to Migration of the Silicon Self-Interstitial

The first total-energy calculations of barriers to interstitial migration have been used to study silicon self-interstitial migration. Migration occurs through the low-electron-density path. Relaxation was found to be important in determining the barrier for both Si⁽⁰⁾ and Si⁽⁺⁺⁾. Electron-assisted migration has been demonstrated. Si⁽⁺⁺⁾ was found to have lower energy at the tetrahedral site while Si⁽⁰⁾ has lower energy at the hexagonal site.